The More Acoustic Kings

In their earliest years in the ‘70s, when they were known simply as Los Reyes, the Gipsy Kings had a primarily acoustic sound. By the late ‘80s, however, their roots-flamenco music had taken on a more contemporary quality. Their recordings from the ‘90s were heavily influenced by the tendency--especially in Paris studios--to season traditional music with electronic, dance-oriented rhythm tracks.

The result was spectacular success for this group of brothers and cousins from the Reyes and Baliardo families. In 1994, the Gipsy Kings were Billboard magazine’s No. 1 world music and Latin artists. Until very recently, they consistently placed at the top of the world music charts, and they have sold more than 15 million albums worldwide.

So fans may be in for a shock at the group’s Greek Theatre shows on Saturday and Sunday.

“We are going to have a big surprise,” says singer Nicolas Reyes, speaking in French through an interpreter. “We have changed our backing musicians. We want to have a more acoustic sound in back of us, and that means we now play with acoustic bass, a drum kit that includes a smaller bass drum, and timbales instead of tom-toms. And we are trying to create better-colored arrangements on keyboards as well.

“It is actually back to something that is very roots, with a complete new team behind us. The new musicians come more from a jazz background. They have been very quick to fit in with our band, and they understand the music very well.”

The shift appears to reflect changes over the past year or so within the Gipsy Kings family organization. According to Reyes, a completed album has been held back because of the members’ dissatisfaction with the studio results.

“It could have been released, but we don’t like it,” he says. “We feel that after we work things out with these new musicians we will be able to produce the record with much more soul than is in the mix that exists now.”

He is quick to add, however, that the program of Gipsy Kings songs will not be abandoned--simply redone to their current musical taste.

“We might use most of the same material, because the songs are good,” Reyes says, “but the way they were produced was very poor. And now what we want to do is not use any more French producers. We want to find a way to work with people who can open up things for us. We basically want to do it ourselves and find the sound that we like.”

What is remarkable about the Kings, of course, is the fact that a large group of cousins and brothers from two families can manage to make any kind of joint decisions at all. But the musical directions are largely determined by the songs that Reyes, his younger brother Canut and lead guitarist Tonino Baliardo bring to the ensemble.

“We try them out for a while, and if everyone agrees, we add the song to our list of material,” says Reyes.

Nor do financial matters appear to cause any dissension. Reportedly, Reyes and Tonino Baliardo earn a somewhat larger share of the pie than the others. But the ensemble quality of Gypsy family life seems to take precedence over individual needs.

“In the Gypsy tradition, families stick together from birth to death,” Reyes notes. “Those who came in and out of the group were not Gypsies, but the Gypsies in the group stick together. And we love to represent and help Gypsy communities around the world to be better respected, because it was not always that way.”

The emphasis on family has clearly been a significant factor in the Gipsy Kings’ remarkable career durability. At the end of each tour, they are eager to return to the home cooking and the intimate family life of their closely knit community of homes around the towns of Arles and Montpelier in southern France.

“What we have in this group,” Reyes concludes, “is like a type of marriage. But it’s a marriage for fun, because playing music is a magical moment, and doing it in a family makes it even more magical.”

BE THERE

The Gipsy Kings, Saturday and Sunday at the Greek Theatre, 2700 Vermont Canyon Road, 8 p.m. $30 to $110.50. (213) 480-3232.